Five Days Left Read online

  “I can reshelve your things,” the woman said. Gesturing to Mara’s pants, she said, “It’s a little better, actually.”

  But her smile was plastic, and Mara felt like a child being told her self-cut hair looked “fine.”

  “Thank you for your kindness,” Mara said quietly. “Please know how sorry I am.”

  “Not at all. You take care now.”

  As Mara retreated down the aisle, she could hear the woman’s too-cheerful voice reading the rest of her grocery list aloud, drowning out the noise of the child beside her who was, Mara was certain, asking his mother what was wrong with the crazy lady with the purse full of pee-filled paper towels.

  She forced herself to hold her head high as she walked past the cashiers and out the front door. By the time she reached the parking lot, her lips were trembling and she could feel the familiar pressure in the top of her throat, signaling impending tears. She toppled into her car, pulling the door closed almost before her feet were out of the way, and fell against the seat, hands covering her face.

  “Oh my God, oh my God. Oh my God!”

  Sobs tore from deep inside her and she gasped for air around them. When she was too exhausted to hold herself upright, she dropped her body forward, letting her head fall to the steering wheel. She stayed like that, bent forward and weeping, for an hour, rewinding the episode in torturously slow motion over and over in her mind, each time wishing for a different ending.

  Finally, her body was too spent to produce any more tears or noise, and she became vaguely aware of cars pulling up nearby, the sound of radios, slamming doors, children calling to parents. She let herself rest against the steering wheel a little longer before she straightened, wiped her cheeks and nose with a sleeve and met her own gaze in the rearview mirror.

  “That’s it, then,” she said grimly to the puffy, red-rimmed eyes staring back at her. “My birthday is on Sunday. I’ve got until then.”

  Five days left, as of this morning. So little time. But she had started preparing almost four years ago, that early dawn as she lay beside her husband, settled on her deadline and promised herself she wouldn’t make any excuses for letting it go by.

  Since then, she had savored each moment as though it were her last. Big ones: Laks’s birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, their anniversary. And small ones: cooking with her mother, watching her father read bedtime stories to Laks, sitting on the bench out front, blowing bubbles while Tom and Laks raced to see who could pop them first. The small ones, she had decided, were the ones she would miss most.

  “Mama?” Laks, backpack slung over one shoulder, the same as the big kids on the bus, trotted into the kitchen, reaching for the ballerina lunch bag on the counter. “You didn’t forget to pack me a cookie again, did you?” She eyed her mother suspiciously and unzipped the bag to peek inside. Satisfied, she zipped it up and thrust a hand out. “Ready?”

  A clump of hair stuck out over the girl’s right ear, the result of a glue incident a week earlier. Laks’s best friend, Susan, accidentally smeared some in her friend’s hair and, in an effort to rectify her mistake, cut out the mess with safety scissors. In the days since, Mara had made a few attempts to get the child to wear her hair in a ponytail to hide the tufts, but each effort had ended in arguments and tears and Mara giving in. A lump the size of a fist blocked Mara’s throat at the sight of her daughter, bristly-haired and gap-toothed and beautiful.

  How could she ever be ready?

  But this is why she had made her promise. So she would go through with it, ready or not.

  “I’m not putting it in a ponytail, Mama,” Laks said, her chin jutting out a fraction in determination, a carbon copy of her mother even without the shared DNA, Tom often remarked. “They’re too pully on my hair. I told you.” She put a hand on her forehead and pulled the skin toward the back of her head, demonstrating.

  Mara cleared her throat and stood. “I know,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about your hair. I was only being slow to answer.”

  “Oh.” Laks nodded, appeased. “Then, are you ready?”

  Mara kissed the top of Laks’s head and ran a gentle palm over the bristles before taking the small hand. “Yes, sweetie, I’m ready.”

  3.

  Scott

  Scott pulled into the driveway and parked close to the sidewalk to leave room for Curtis, who was shooting hoops at the net attached over the garage door. Granny shots, the saving grace of an eight-year-old, he thought. Hearing the car, Curtis turned and waved.

  “Nice arc on those shots, Little Man.”

  “Ugh. I’m so tired of doing grannies but it’s all I can do on this net.” The boy held the ball in front of him, eyeing it like it was a traitor, then nodded. Scott dropped his keys and briefcase onto the driveway and in one graceful movement he caught a sloppy bounce pass, set up a quick shot and sank it. Swoosh. Curtis grabbed the rebound and tried a similar shot. Short on grace and shorter on height, the ball arced a good two feet below the rim. He arched an eyebrow. “See?”

  Scott took the rebound. “I know, I know. I should’ve bought one of those adjustable stand-alone hoops when we retired your friend over there.” He nodded toward a worn plastic basketball hoop leaning against the garage. Sinking another shot, he stood, arms open wide, and the boy ran to him, throwing his arms around Scott’s waist. Scott stroked the head that rested against his stomach, his hand pale white in comparison to the brown skin showing through Curtis’s wiry black hair. Leaning down, he pressed his nose and mouth against the top of the small head and breathed in the smell of little boy sweat and Michigan spring.

  “I’m going to miss you,” he said. The child nodded and hugged tighter. They stood for a few moments, arms around each other, until Curtis broke free, dragged a dirty hand across his wet eyes and ran after the ball.

  “Where’s Laurie?” Scott called after the running boy.

  “Kitchen. Makin’ lasagna.”

  This earned an approving smile. “What’d you do to deserve that?”

  “Miss Keller put a check mark in my planner ’cause I had a real good day.” He gave a “How do you like that?” look and reached out for a fist bump.

  “Nice. That’s two for two this week. Three more and you stay up late on Friday.”

  “Popcorn and a movie. Till ten.” The boy’s mouth twisted in exaggerated dismay. “But Laurie wants to watch, too, since it’s our last one, so it’s gotta be a movie a girl wants to see. No splosions or anything.”

  “Still, ten o’clock bedtime rocks, right?”

  Curtis brightened. “And popcorn.”

  “So, nail the next three days. I’d better go check in. More hoops after dinner?”

  “Maybe. But I have to read tonight. Laurie said. And practice math.”

  Scott smiled at the pretend anger. The boy thrived on the expectations and rules at the Coffmans’ house, but he was old enough to know he wasn’t supposed to admit it. Scott played along. “School’s important, Little Man. Come in soon for dinner.”

  He bent to pick up his things and started for the front door. Behind him he heard a loud “Dang it!” as the ball, he guessed, came short of the net once again.

  Pushing the door closed behind him, Scott set his keys on the front entryway table and inhaled deeply: garlic, tomato, basil, cheese.

  “Laur?” he called. “Smells fantastic in here.”

  He dropped his briefcase at his feet and bent to examine a floor nail that had worked its way loose and now threatened to catch on the next sock that ran across it. Pushing the nail down with his heel, he checked the rest of the entryway for others. It was ten years since he had resanded these floors. He put a hand reflexively on the small of his back.

  His wife’s vision of a dream house hadn’t exactly matched their fixer-upper budget. Restoring the hundred-year-old “needs love” colonial had involved a three-page to-do list and every we
ekend and evening for over a year. It was the price of entry, they told themselves, to the kind of house she had always wanted and he was determined to give her: a big, rambling place with wood floors, built-in shelves and two fireplaces. Full of character and, one day, children.

  He ran a flat hand over the entryway wall. Removing all the layers of wallpaper took them two months alone. Then there was all the painting—the same neutral Warm Ecru throughout the house with a bold-colored accent wall in every room, carefully chosen after they compared several patches of different shades of multiple colors. They joked about putting the paint department guy at the hardware store on their Christmas card list.

  He reached the doorway to the kitchen and leaned against the frame. His wife was bent over the oven, her large-bellied profile still a surprise to him. She hadn’t changed out of her work clothes, though she had captured her wavy blond mane in a ponytail.

  “Smells fantastic,” he said again.

  “Oh, hi there, you. I didn’t hear you.” She set the lasagna on the stovetop.

  He crossed the room to kiss her. “He had a good day, I hear.” Tipping his head over the lasagna, he inhaled again. “Mmmm. Glad he did. I’ve been craving your lasagna myself lately.”

  She made a face and put a hand on her stomach. “That makes two of you. I can barely stand the smell of it.” In response to his look of concern, she waved a hand. “It’s nothing. We had fattoush salad at lunch from that new place near the office and it was a little too oily. Anyway, don’t get too excited about the good day. I talked to Miss Keller when I picked him up. She’s going easy on him this week because of the transition. He only met half his behavior goals, but she decided to give him full credit. I think she’s worried if she doesn’t help him build some positive momentum, he’ll fall apart completely by Friday.”

  “Maybe Miss Keller knows a way to keep me from falling apart,” Scott said. Sighing, he moved aside the curtain on the small window above the sink and spied on the boy in the driveway until a hand on his back reminded him whom he was supposed to be paying attention to. He let the curtain drop and turned to his wife.

  “I’m surprised you’re going along with the leniency,” he said. “Lasagna, when he didn’t really meet all his goals?” All year, Laurie had been the one to lead the discipline charge. He put a hand on her round stomach. “Impending motherhood’s making you soft, huh?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “I was going to make it anyway, no matter what I heard from Miss Keller. I wanted to be sure he had it one more time before he leaves. I’ll do spaghetti tomorrow, and let him help bake cookies for dessert. Homemade pizza on Thursday. I thought about baking a cake on Friday, and you could grill burgers on Saturday. All his favorites, you know? Although I’m tempted to have him eat nothing but vegetables and fruit until he leaves, just to get some nutrients in him before he goes back.”

  Scott winced.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  “No, it’s okay. There’s no use pretending. He’s not moving into the Ritz when he leaves here, and that’s the reality. And it’s okay—at least, that’s what I’ve told myself a hundred times a day for the past few weeks.” He closed his eyes as if reciting a mantra. “It’s going to be okay. Even if he eats cold ravioli from a can and only showers once a week and goes back to all his old stunts. All of that is better than being separated from his mother. Even if she lets him get away without doing homework, sends him to school without eating breakfast, the best thing for him is to be with his mom.”

  “All of that is entirely true,” Laurie said, and he could sense the small tinge of frustration in her voice. “And it almost sounds like you believe it, this time.” She didn’t add “finally,” but he knew she was thinking it.

  “Almost,” he said. She started to speak, and to avoid hearing what he knew was coming, he jumped in ahead of her. “Thanks for picking him up, by the way. Sorry about the eleventh-hour change of plan. So, can I help with anything in here? Set the table?”

  It worked. She handed him three glasses and a basket of rolls, armed herself with cutlery and paper napkins and led him into the dining room. “You’re welcome, but I thought the whole point of having Pete cover practice this week was to give you more time at home, not more time for last-minute meetings with parents. Why didn’t you ask the woman to wait till next week?”

  She spoke in the too-light tone he recognized as reproach wrapped in politeness, her question more of a challenge. She had posed similar ones many times: Why did he get up early Saturday mornings to make the thirty-minute drive to inner-city Detroit, when he could be sleeping late? Half the kids who attended the Saturday tutoring program he ran were only there for the free pizza lunch anyway, didn’t he see that? Why did he spend his summer evenings at the run-down outdoor court in front of the school, playing pickup with kids most teachers were thrilled to have a two-month break from, or be freed of entirely, now that they had gone on to high school?

  Scott held his palms toward her, begging forgiveness. “You know how my parent-teacher conference nights go at that school. I read Sports Illustrated for an hour with maybe one or two people bothering to stop by. If someone’s going to finally get involved in their kid’s education, I’ve got to be there to meet with them. If I put her off till next week, there’s no guarantee she’d show.”

  “You can’t single-handedly save every student at Franklin Middle School.”

  “I know. I won’t get to all of them. Three years isn’t enough time.” He flashed a lopsided grin and hoped it was irresistible.

  She let out a breath as she returned to the kitchen. “That was not the point I was making, and you know it.” Following, he reached in the fridge for a beer and opened it, then filled a glass of water from the tap. He handed her the glass and raised his bottle. She clinked her glass against it, took a sip and made a face, a hand on her stomach.

  “You sure you’re okay?” he asked.

  She sighed. “You know how it’s been. I eat one wrong thing and it throws me off the rest of the day.”

  He raised his beer again. “Here’s hoping the last trimester will be better.” The last trimester was two weeks away. She was due July 15.

  “Hopefully.” She set the glass on the counter and kept her gaze fixed on it. “I never feel like it’s the right time to say this, and it’s not now. But I really think having our life back is going to make things better.” She caught his expression and quickly added, “Or, not ‘better’ necessarily. Just, you know, easier. Being able to come straight home from work and sit? Relax? Instead of having to be taxi driver, afternoon snack server, homework supervisor, all of that?”

  Scott looked out the window again at the boy in the driveway and didn’t answer. He didn’t have a list of things he’d rather do than spend time with Curtis.

  “Would you rather sit by yourself and read or come and shoot hoops?” Curtis had asked once. “Laurie says I have to ask you what you’d rather do, instead of just expecting you to come out and play every time.” Scott dropped his book to the floor. “I’d always rather be with you. But would you rather shoot hoops alone and be unopposed, so you can tell yourself later you were the best out there? Or have me come out and wipe the court with you?”

  Would You Rather. It had become their language. A second-grade boy’s version of “I love you, too.” Would you rather eat glass or walk on it? Would you rather swallow a handful of live spiders or stand for an hour in a roomful of bats?

  Scott heard Laurie clear her throat behind him. Would you rather keep watching the boy and have your wife ticked off for the rest of the night, or pay attention to her? He turned from the window.

  “I’m going to miss him, too,” she said. She reached in the drawer for a knife and started slicing the lasagna. “But I’m focusing on the bright side now, and that’s what you need to do. I’ve already planned out next week: Monday, I’m coming home from the office, sitting on the co
uch with that stack of baby books I haven’t had a chance to read, and not moving till dinnertime.” She pointed her knife at him. “I’m counting on my husband to take me out to dinner that night. Maybe even a movie after. When’s the last time we had a date night?”

  She paused, waiting for him to notice his cue. He gave his impression of an eager nod and, satisfied, she went on. “Tuesday, I’m finally getting that pregnancy massage the girls at the office gave me the certificate for. I cannot wait.” She put a hand on her lower back and rubbed. “Wednesday . . . well, I’ve only gotten to Tuesday in my plans. The rest of the week will probably involve a lot of sitting with my feet up, reading, in absolute silence.”

  “Nice.”

  “Think of everything you’ll be able to do in your newfound spare time,” she said. “Reading baby books with me for starters. We’re six months along and about six months behind in learning what’s going on in there.” She indicated her belly and he put a hand on it. She covered his with hers, leaned against the stove and smiled. “Sometimes, I still can’t believe it, you know? After all this time. A baby. In this house. In July.” Her smile widened. “Can you believe it?”

  “I’m a grinning idiot every time someone asks me about it,” Scott said. “So Pete tells me.” Pete Conner was a fellow English teacher at Franklin, assistant basketball coach to Scott and his closest friend.

  She snapped her fingers. “Oh, I almost forgot. Bundles of Joy called. That crib we looked at? The one with the claw feet, that was already sold? Turns out they have another one coming in on consignment, end of the week or Monday. It’s gray, but a few coats of paint will change that. They’re going to put our name on it.”

  “Great news on the crib. Not so much on the painting.”

  “Come on, it’ll be fun. And only one room this time, right?”